Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[mjmooney]

9 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Doctors you say. Why does everyone complain about not getting appointment. I've lived in Erdington, Castle Vale and now Stourbridge for the past few years and I've never had any trouble getting an appointment.

You literally just go on a website, entered your details and you will get help in a day or two.

Postcode lottery. 

[Genie]

22 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Doctors you say. Why does everyone complain about not getting appointment. I've lived in Erdington, Castle Vale and now Stourbridge for the past few years and I've never had any trouble getting an appointment.

You literally just go on a website, entered your details and you will get help in a day or two.

You do.

Most people can’t book that way, you have to call at 8am (not 7:59, and not 8:01) and ask for an appointment. You’ll be on hold for 30-45 minutes and often be told there are no appointments. You can only book for the day you’ve called on so have to restart the dance the following day.

This is the new normal.

[Stevo985]

Yeah I count myself lucky that I actually have a really good doctor's surgery. Even the receptionists are nice.

But you still have to run the 8am gauntlet to get an appointment. And you're always in a queue of about 40 people despite ringing bang on 8am.

Fortunately ours has just introduced a callback service so you just press a button and they call you back when your place in the queue comes up

[Seat68]

You can actually visit and get an appointment, I went to my doctors for an appointment on Monday morning, they offered me same day, but I chose the following day. This time it was just for the phlebotomist but I do this every time, why spend ages trying to get through and then sit in a queue when you can visit and jump the queue. 

 

Caveats apply, distance to the doctors, unable to leave the house etc.

[Stevo985]

Just now, Seat68 said:

You can actually visit and get an appointment, I went to my doctors for an appointment on Monday morning, they offered me same day, but I chose the following day. This time it was just for the phlebotomist but I do this every time, why spend ages trying to get through and then sit in a queue when you can visit and jump the queue. 

 

Caveats apply, distance to the doctors, unable to leave the house etc.

I think if you do this at most places you'll be told to ring back at 8am the next day

[Stevo985]

My mom has just moved, but her old doctor's was run via a call centre. So you weren't even speaking to someone at the surgery. She was just constantly fobbed off because the agents didn't give a ****

[Genie]

2 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Yeah I count myself lucky that I actually have a really good doctor's surgery. Even the receptionists are nice.

But you still have to run the 8am gauntlet to get an appointment. And you're always in a queue of about 40 people despite ringing bang on 8am.

Fortunately ours has just introduced a callback service so you just press a button and they call you back when your place in the queue comes up

Whilst on hold ours has a rolling message about not being abusive to the reception staff which says a lot about the people calling, and the people on reception (both awful).

[Seat68]

1 minute ago, Stevo985 said:

I think if you do this at most places you'll be told to ring back at 8am the next day

Not disputing this, but my doctors has always done this, you can visit or call. Over time I just found it easier to visit, my old house was around 500 yards away, my new house is about 2 miles away but I stay with my doctors over one closer because I have always got appointments when needed,

[Genie]

The cycle often is

1) feel ill or worried about a health condition 

2) call doctors

3) no appointments 

4) told to call 111

5) call 111

6) 111 say go to A&E if you’re still worried/ill

7) Spend 6 hours in A&E

8 ) read in the news about A&E being chaos and longest wait times on record.

[Stevo985]

My mom had to go to A&E yesterday. She had her arm wired together a few months ago after breaking it, and the wire has come loose. It was fine for ages now all of a sudden she can barely move her arm, and not without pain. And you can see the wire poking the skin from the inside. Plus it's suddenly swollen up.

She sat in A&E for 7 hours yesterday. First paramedic that saw her said there was definitely something wrong. Eventually she saw Orthopaedics, and the guy said it didn't look like anything was wrong on the xray and even if there was it's not urgent so she wouldn't get an op for 2 weeks. Sent her home and said they "might" be in touch

[phily85]

Same theme dentists, my NHS dentist retired due to ill health surgery closed. Was told to go register with another NHS dentist, problem being all NHS waiting lists are 5-6 years long, but if you sign up to amonthly private membership plan can have an appointment in 3 days with the very same dentist was told have to wait 5 years for 

[rjw63]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

Whilst on hold ours has a rolling message about not being abusive to the reception staff which says a lot about the people calling, and the people on reception (both awful).

Ours still play a message warning us there are “high volumes of callers due to the Covid 19 pandemic”.

Why the **** they don’t change the message I do not know.

[chrisp65]

4 hours ago, Seat68 said:

Not disputing this, but my doctors has always done this, you can visit or call. Over time I just found it easier to visit, my old house was around 500 yards away, my new house is about 2 miles away but I stay with my doctors over one closer because I have always got appointments when needed,

 

Yep, I’ve been very lucky over the years in not needing the attention of doctors. But recently, I’ve completely avoided the 8:00am lottery queue, I’ve phoned in mid morning with some very specific symptoms and asked for a call back phone consultation.

Invariably I’ve got one same day and the result has been the doctor saying could you pop by in about 20 minutes time. 

I guess the trick is to hit that symptom sweet spot where its more specific than not feeling well or a funny arm, but not so serious they say phone an ambulance.

Turns out my penis is normal size.

But normal size for a shire horse.

 

 

[sidcow]

I have to complete an online triage form.  They then decide if they will call me back to speak to a gatekeeper.  If I pass those tests and can recite the secret password I am then allowed to visit a doctor in a week or so's time.

25 years ago, before my surgery merged with 6 others to create a super surgery for my benefit and to make enormous cost savings, I just used to call them up when I felt ill and get a same day appointment.

Edited November 22, 2023 by sidcow

[Rugeley Villa]

On 29/10/2023 at 17:53, chrisp65 said:

Rookie error, telling people when your CS test is.

Tell people when you’ve passed your test!

But good luck.

Passed it today 48/50 correct 

[Xela]

9 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Postcode lottery. 

This.

My parents are still impressed at how easy it is to get a Doctor's appointment in Telford, compared to their old one on the Sutton/Erdington border. That was almost impossible.

"Ring up at 8am in the morning" - not that easy if you are on the road, on public transport, working etc. 

[Davkaus]

It's only in the last couple of years my GP has upgraded to a proper phone system that lets them have a queue. Until then you just called, heard the engaged tone, hung up, tried again, hundreds of times until they answered to tell you that all of the appointments were gone.

[il_serpente]

Geez, you folks are starting to make me wonder if the right wingers in the US who oppose any kind of national health care program over here are right when they say if we have socialized health care we'll end up with an awful system like the UK or Canada, where you have to wait ages to get appointments and non-emergency surgical procedures.

Health care in the US can be great if you've got good insurance through work and you don't have any significant pre-existing conditions that would make it hard to get an insurer to accept you on a new plan.  People sometimes can't change jobs because they're afraid the insurance at the new job would refuse coverage because they've been diagnosed with cancer or something.  Private health insurance can be really scummy.

My son fractured a kidney when he was a kid and spent something like 10 days in the hospital, the first few in intensive care.   Although he didn't end up needing surgery, they had to do a contrast CT scan to confirm that there was no longer any leakage of blood or urine before discharging him, and he had to stay a couple of extra days waiting to get that done.  The insurance company said some of his procedures were unnecessary and he could have been discharged a couple of days earlier, so they refused to pay some of the hospital and doctor charges.  We got a bill for $170,000 from the hospital for the part the insurance company refused to pay.   Needless to say, we were pretty freaked out.  The insurance company and hospital ended up compromising in the end and covered everything, but this sort of thing happens in the US far too often when you have a major medical issue.

I don't have to call at a certain time to get an appointment or anything, but doctors are often booked way out, particularly specialists.   My wife needs a partial knee replacement and was told in August the earliest available date was in February.  She needs a physical beforehand and the earliest she could get one scheduled with the health group we use (not even our regular doctor) is in January.   I don't know how that compares to the waits you'd have in the UK, but for us this is a real decline in service from what we were getting just a couple of years ago.

[sidcow]

8 minutes ago, il_serpente said:

Geez, you folks are starting to make me wonder if the right wingers in the US who oppose any kind of national health care program over here are right when they say if we have socialized health care we'll end up with an awful system like the UK or Canada, where you have to wait ages to get appointments and non-emergency surgical procedures.

Health care in the US can be great if you've got good insurance through work and you don't have any significant pre-existing conditions that would make it hard to get an insurer to accept you on a new plan.  People sometimes can't change jobs because they're afraid the insurance at the new job would refuse coverage because they've been diagnosed with cancer or something.  Private health insurance can be really scummy.

My son fractured a kidney when he was a kid and spent something like 10 days in the hospital, the first few in intensive care.   Although he didn't end up needing surgery, they had to do a contrast CT scan to confirm that there was no longer any leakage of blood or urine before discharging him, and he had to stay a couple of extra days waiting to get that done.  The insurance company said some of his procedures were unnecessary and he could have been discharged a couple of days earlier, so they refused to pay some of the hospital and doctor charges.  We got a bill for $170,000 from the hospital for the part the insurance company refused to pay.   Needless to say, we were pretty freaked out.  The insurance company and hospital ended up compromising in the end and covered everything, but this sort of thing happens in the US far too often when you have a major medical issue.

I don't have to call at a certain time to get an appointment or anything, but doctors are often booked way out, particularly specialists.   My wife needs a partial knee replacement and was told in August the earliest available date was in February.  She needs a physical beforehand and the earliest she could get one scheduled with the health group we use (not even our regular doctor) is in January.   I don't know how that compares to the waits you'd have in the UK, but for us this is a real decline in service from what we were getting just a couple of years ago.

Our issues are purely down to Tory underfunding for years. 

It's mainly an issue with GP appointments and social/elderly care. 

Generally when the shit hits the fan the NHS functions very well. 

[foreveryoung]

1 hour ago, sidcow said:

Our issues are purely down to Tory underfunding for years. 

It's mainly an issue with GP appointments and social/elderly care. 

Generally when the shit hits the fan the NHS functions very well. 

But people shouldn't be blinded by the underfunding narrative. It's about very poor management, people in jobs which need not exist, as well as overpaying for everything from contracted work to supplies. It could basically run well on the financing it recieves, but would need a total reform.